Thank you all for joining us through the end of 2008. It’s been a great and memorable year. Your #1 story of 2008 is Sean Avery. For everything he did to annoy us, surely there can be no other. Also, the winner of our “Annoyingest” contest is Mats Sundin. So you’re Top 10 stories of the year are:

Thank you once again, and we’ll see you on Friday. What are our expectations for the Winter Classic ratings? We’re predicting a 3.0 Overnight, a 2.6 Final rating, and about 4.0-4.1 Million viewers. Enjoy the Winter Classic, and a happy, hockey-filled 2009 to you all.

No matter who you vote for in our contest from the previous post, neither Brian Burke nor Mats Sundin could be as big a story as our Stanley Cup Champions, the Detroit Red Wings.

They were a team of superstars (Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom) and emerging talents (Franzen, Filppula, Kronwall), redemption stories (Osgood, McCarty) and last gasps (Drake, Chelios). They all somehow meshed together, and 100% of the credit should be given to their fantastic coach, Mike Babcock. The Red Wings finally got over the playoff hurdles that have dogged them since 2002 to advance past Nashville, Colorado, Dallas and finally Pittsburgh to take home Lord Stanley’s Chalice for the 4th time in 12 years. Congrats one more time to the Red Wings and their fans for being great champions and keepers of hockey’s great reward. Video of the celebration post-jump.

CHICAGO — Dec. 31, 2008 — Hall of Fame broadcaster “Doc” Emrick will be unable to call tomorrow’s NHL Winter Classic due to laryngitis. Dave Strader, who is the play-by-play voice of the Phoenix Coyotes and has also worked for NBC Sports, will fill in for Emrick.

“Last year’s game was a lifetime memory and I couldn’t wait to call this year’s game at Wrigely,” said Emrick. “I’m extremely disappointed but I know Dave will do a wonderful job.”

NBC’s coverage of the Winter Classic begins at 1 p.m. ET tomorrow, New Year’s Day. Last season’s inaugural U.S. outdoor NHL event was the highest rated regular season NHL game in the United States in more than a decade.

Tough news for fans of Emrick around the NHL. He had missed his Saturday Devils assignment for MSG Plus due to sickness, after leaving their game Friday with sickness. It’s a shame for hockey fans everywhere, but at the same time, we know that Dave Strader is as good a hockey announcer not named Mike Emrick that you’ll find to call the game.

Good news for all hockey fans. Jiggs McDonald, who had some troubles getting out of Thailand last month is back at the rink today. The Islanders have him sub for Howie Rose a few games every year (the plan is usually for Jiggs to sub for Rose while he calls Mets playoff games in October but, well, stupid Mets) and today’s the first I can remember him doing this year. Check it out for a little while, because I wouldn’t recommend anyone watching a full Isles-Panthers game.

Thoughtful, interesting piece in today’s New York Times from their ace media reporter Richard Sandomir. Aside from pointing out how much larger the NHL is living with this year’s Classic compared to last year, Sandomir also ponders the question of how the NHL can keep doing this:

That frequency would probably wear out the novelty, but you wonder if the league can make the game special enough every year to maintain fan interest. It could become the annual event that the league hopes for, or it could be humdrum. Will new elements have to be added to keep it fresh, or will anticipation sell it each year? Will only cold-weather teams be admitted, or will Dallas or Tampa Bay want to play at Fenway Park?

He makes a great point. So we’d like to lay out for you our 6-year plan to make the Winter Classic consistently fresh and interesting. Join us, won’t you?

These two characters were perhaps more annoying than any pair of hockey figures this year. However, I can simply not decide who was more annoying, and therefore, more newsworthy. So this one will be a poll where you, the readers, get to decide. Whoever tallies the more annoying votes by 7PM will be #3, and the loser will be #4. Either way, we can truly say that these two have wasted our time this calendar year.